Wisdom of our ancestors 1

During the colonialization periods since Columbus, missionaries came across indigenous peoples and automatically labelled them savage pagans simply because they were not European Christians.  Not much has changed.  This really is a great indictment on how effective the Eurocentric Judeo-Christian worldview has dominated for several hundred years.  It is only relatively recently that cultural anthropologists have broken out of this worldview and started to observe indigenous peoples from a more ‘neutral’ perspective.

First, let’s dismiss this New Age notion that they were all ecological saints that lived in peace and harmony with the Earth and each other.   Second, let’s also dismiss the notion that they were unsophisticated savages just because they didn’t fit the European notions of what constitutes ‘civilization.’  It might be fair to point out that the Europeans rose out of Empire civilizations that were busy conquering other people and butchering whole populations while they ravaged and dominated, to their limited extent, the natural world. Yes, they developed some unique cultures and religion along the way, but it is assumed that indigenous people didn’t.  As far as we know all indigenous cultures practiced forms of Animism or Pantheism.  While the two are not exactly the same, they are often used synonymously.  Some indigenous cultures would practice a combination of both.  The main difference is that animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature but not necessarily connected to the singular whole, while pantheists see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism) – all a part of the creator.   But to all intent and purpose, they both recognize that harmony with the natural world is a given.

The consequent of this is that while indigenous people were not saints they did live within the natural order of things and practiced ecological balance and nurturing of all resources within their jurisdiction (territory).  They may have done so because of necessity and learned through trial and error, as many ecologists have proposed, but manipulating the natural world was done mindfully.  It is when we look at the actual beliefs they practiced that we see a more spiritual understanding and connection of the natural system.  The singular difference between our modern culture and those of indigenous peoples is that we see ourselves APART from nature, while the latter see themselves as inherently CONNECTED at all levels to nature.  This frames indigenous cultures and how they will behave.  We focus everything through an economic perspective and so everything we currently do is framed through profit to increase monetary benefit.  As I have said many times in previous posts, what we focus upon is what we measure and hence this determines how ALL our beliefs and actions are framed.  Pantheists and Animists focus upon the natural and spiritual world as everything of consequence in their lives.

Think about reading a book and how in your mind the characters voices seem alive within our imagination. For indigenous peoples, the oral histories and the world around them are just as alive.  Daniel Quinn talks about how ancient tribal systems were about how people ‘made a living together’ and this did involve living in the same place but it is the way to make a living that made them successful.  Wade Davis talks about the Penan peoples of Brunei.  How they were totally connected to there world because it was how they made a living.  They knew that every forest sound was an element of a language of the spirit of the forest.  Bird songs and animal noises were cacophonies of information that told them something about what was happening around them.  It was a whole dialogue from nature that informed them of what to do and what to avoid.  They did not separate dreams from reality.  The dream world was as important to them as the awake world.  Think about the Australian Aborigines and their dream time.

Wade Davis asks, “Is a forest mere cellulose and board feet?  [or] was it the domain of the spirits?”  We are NOT talking superstition here, but a reverence for the natural world that transcends mere resources as something to be used for comfort and profit.  What matters is not whether a spirit actually lives in an ancient tree or resides on a mountain top, but the potency of the belief that plays out in daily living that controls the mindset for a local ecological footprint – the impact that every society has on its local environment.  Just because we are a physical technological society does not exclude our ability to live within nature.  Indigenous peoples had no conscious sense of being stewards of the land on which they lived.  They did, however, create deep spiritual connections steeped in ritual about their relationships with the land, “Breathed into being by human consciousness” as Davis would say.  Aldo Leopold with his Land Ethic would have understood these peoples.  For them the land is alive with a dynamic identity.  Until the Europeans arrived, most of these indigenous peoples enjoyed good health and happy lives.  In extreme climates, life would be hard, but that didn’t diminish the high quality well-being that they enjoyed.  Their stories did not set them at odds with the natural world but connected them intimately to it.  For the colonizers, it was religion of one form or another that told them that not only were they separate from nature but almost required to dominate it.  This has always been a split in religion where the term dominion, so well used, has been a central cry in justifying destruction of the natural world.    To Be Continued……….